1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to PrePaid Charging (PPC) of Short Message Service (SMS) messages in a telecommunications network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nowadays, in a circuit switched network it is possible for a voice or data subscriber of telecommunication services to subscribe to PrePaid services. For doing so, the subscriber has to establish a Prepaid account in a PrePaid Charging (PPC) system, which is managed by a service provider. The subscriber may request the notification of current PrePaid Charging (PPC) account information at any time from a PPC system. The notification may be provided by tone announcement, voice announcement, or display text. As an example, a PPC subscriber can access his account by first accessing an Interactive Voice Response (IVR). The IVR may be connected to a serving Mobile Switching Center (MSC) of the Prepaid subscriber. The IVR is further connected to a Prepaid system that contains the account of the Prepaid subscriber. With this the balance of a Prepaid subscriber can be prompted to the Prepaid subscriber on demand. The Prepaid subscriber may also increase the credit of his account for further usage.
As of today, an A-subscriber can subscribe to services such as a Short Message Service (SMS), which allows him to send text messages (SMS messages) to another subscriber (B-subscriber) of the service. By subscribing to such a service, the A-subscriber might also be allowed to receive text message from the B-subscriber or any other subscriber. The A-subscriber and the B-subscriber can be located in the same network and served by the same network entities or can be located in two different networks, or can simply have two distinct SMS service providers. However, any of this usage requires the short message to be originated and to be terminated. For doing so, Mobile Station-originated Short Message Service and Mobile Station-terminated Short Message Service are necessary.
The functionality for delivering the SMS is done by the Message Centers (MCs) of the sending and receiving subscriber. However, even though it is possible to send and receive SMS messages, it is not possible with the existing prior art implementations to charge or to deny charging in real time for each and every SMS sent and received by a PrePaid subscriber. Current methods described in the ANSI-41 and IS-826 standards, fail to provide support for charging and possibly blocking in real-time the usage of SMS by a PrePaid subscriber. The ANSI-41 and IS-826 standards are included herein by reference. Currently, a subscriber who sends or receives an SMS is charged for that event automatically without any prior validation of the subscriber's PPC account. For that reason there is a need for providing a real-time PrePaid Charging for SMS delivery. The invention provides a solution to this problem.